


What Are Partners For?

by yayalovesyou



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: 2x08 Spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Soft!Rio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 20:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18582109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yayalovesyou/pseuds/yayalovesyou
Summary: “We’re partners. I do have your back, you know.”“You have a funny way of showing it sometimes.”“Well I show it when it counts. Even if you don’t listen to me and you don’t let me help you.”Takes place immediately after 2x08. Rio catches Beth in the middle of a downward spiral and attempts to help her.





	What Are Partners For?

**Author's Note:**

> Dean fucking sucks. And if you thought I wasn’t going to write a scene with Rio comforting Beth after her children were all but kidnapped, do you even know me at all?

Beth was exhausted. Physically, emotionally and mentally drained. This had been the longest week of her life. With dealing with that group of drug dealers, Jane going missing, fighting with Ruby, and Dean taking her kids, Beth had nothing else to give.

Ruby and Annie had long gone home, with Beth insisting they do so.  I’ll be okay , she said.  Go home. Go hug your kids.  But she was still in the backyard, absentmindedly staring at the ridiculous amount of holes. She didn’t know how long she had been out there, but the sun was starting to come up. Whatever. It wasn’t like she had anyone to make breakfast for.

“Did you sleep out here?”

Beth saw Rio’s feet, expertly dodging the holes. 

“Didn’t sleep,” Beth countered.

“Was this like, some weird camping experience?” Rio teased. Beth didn’t reply. “Oof, tough crowd.”

“Why are you here?” Beth asked.

“Haven’t heard from you in a few days, so I decided to check in. Did you get your money back?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a long story.”

”Lucky for you, I have time.”

”It’s not a story I want to tell right now.”

“Should’ve let me handle it like I intended.”

“If you came over to gloat, I’m not in the mood.”

Rio sat down next to Beth, and she didn’t even move. He took a look at her and noticed how disheveled she was. “What’s wrong?”

“The bastard left with my kids,” Beth said.

“What?”

“I got home last night, and they were gone. He left me, with them in tow.”

“And you’re just going to roll over and let him?”

“What else do I do?”

Rio frowned. He had never seen Beth so...broken. Despondent. Empty. There was no light in her eyes, no affect in her voice, nothing. He didn’t like it. Where was the spunky, loud mouthed strawberry blonde that was always pushing boundaries and getting on his nerves?

“Come on, it’s freezing out here.” Rio stood up and pulled Beth’s arms, lifting her up as well.

“I’m fine.”

“You feel like an ice pop,” Rio deadpanned. “Let’s go inside.”

“No.”

Rio huffed in annoyance. God, even his 6 year old child wasn’t  _this_   stubborn.

“Okay,” he sighed out. He crouch down, hooked his arm under legs, the other finding its way under her arm, lifting her up bridal style.

“Hey! Put me down!”

“You could’ve walked, but you wanted to be difficult.”

Beth struggled, but Rio was a lot stronger than he appeared. She hated it. Once they were in the kitchen, Rio placed her back on solid ground.

“So you just gonna let car man take your kids?”

“He knows too much. I can’t go to battle with him without going to prison. Without you going to prison.”

“You’re a lot of things, but I never pegged you as a quitter.”

“What other choice do I have?”

“You fight. Dig your heels in and fight back.”

“How?”

“You’ve talked my ear off about these kids for the past year and a half, and now you’re okay with just being a weekend and occasional holiday mom?”

“Can you stop?”

“You’re gonna let that dumb ass husband of yours run your life? Let him have even more control over you? Beg  _him_   to see the kids you pushed out and nurtured? How cowardice. I wonder how your kids will feel knowing their mother didn’t fight for them. She just...gave up.”

“Shut up.”

“Maybe I was wrong about you,” Rio continued. “Yeah, I had it all wrong. You ain’t no boss. Just a weak bitch who can’t function without taking marching orders–“

He was cut off by a loud slap, Beth’s ice cold hand connecting with his cheek. It stung, but he held his composure.

Beth struck him again, this time in the chest. And another one in the arm. Before she could do it again, Rio reached out and grabbed her wrist.

Her eyes were blazing now, deep with a fury he’d never seen from her before. Good. She was actually expressing emotion. “Don’t you  _dare_   talk to me like that! And don’t  _ever_   question my parenting skills again!”

The corner of Rio’s mouth quirked up slightly. “There we go. There’s my Elizabeth.”

The bough had officially been broken. Tears spilled from Beth’s eyes quicker than she anticipated, leaving her no time to attempt to get rid of them before Rio noticed.

A sob bubbled to the surface of her chest and escaped quickly. Beth was crying uncontrollably, the weight of everything finally catching up to her.

“What am I going to do?” She cried. “I don’t even know how to breathe without my kids, and he knows that. And he to-“ the word couldn’t even leave her lips. “They’re  _gone_. ”

Rio wrapped his arms around Beth’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug. His shirt was soaked with her tears, but he didn’t care. Not knowing with to say, he just dropped a kiss onto her forehead and hugged her tighter, trying to keep her still as the sobs racked her body.

They stayed like that for what felt like forever. Rio just held her silently, acting as a pillar, holding her upright. Neither of them knew how much time had passed, but eventually Beth’s cries tampered out into whimpers and the occasional sniffle. 

“Come with me,” he gently ordered, pulling out of the hug and tugging on her hand. He led her through her bedroom and into her en suite. “Is your shower one of those fancy ass ones with a million knobs, or do I just turn the handle?” Rio opened the shower door. “Oh good, I just gotta turn the knob.”

Once the shower was on, he turned back to Beth who was staring at him. She was too out of it to move. He reached out and grabbed hold of her sweater, lifting it over her head and tossing it to the floor.

Rio then moved to the zipper of her jeans, pausing for a moment. He was sure she’d swat his hand away and yell at him, but she didn’t. Okay, he was going to do this. He slowly pulled at the zipper and tugged the pants down her legs until they pooled at her ankles. Any other time, he would’ve reveled in having Beth half naked. But this was anything but sexy. Weirdly intimate in a way he’d never experienced with Beth before, but not sexy.

His hand was on her hip and he slightly tugged at the waistband of her underwear to get her attention. “You think you can take it from here or...?”

Beth twisted out of his grasp. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Cool. I’ll leave you to it.”

Rio walked out of the bathroom and headed back to Beth’s kitchen. While she was in the shower, he figured he could cook something for her.

He was in the mood for a frittata or an omelette, but Beth didn’t have any of the necessary ingredients in her fridge. How does one not have fresh spinach or mushrooms? Or avocado oil?

So he settled on simple scrambled eggs, bacon, an English muffin with strawberry jam, and a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice. Not his finest work, but it would have to suffice.

Thirty-five minutes later, and Beth hadn’t emerged from her room. The shower wasn’t running anymore. Grabbing the plate and glass, he headed back to her bedroom. “You decent, Red?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m coming in.” He opened the door and saw Beth, curled up in fetal position in the middle of her bed. She was wearing a ratty old t-shirt and shorts, the first clean articles of clothing she could get her hands on. “And I come bearing food.”

Beth’s eyes wandered up and she saw Rio hovering over her, a plate in hand. “I’m not hungry.”

“Something tells me you didn’t eat anything last night, so I’m sure you’re starving. And I happen to be an excellent cook.” When Beth didn’t make a move, Rio rolled his eyes. “Do I have to force feed you, like you’re a child?

“You aren’t going to leave me alone, are you?”

“You should know by now that leaving you alone has never been an option of mine.”

Beth sighed and sat up in bed. She grabbed the plate out of Rio’s hand. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

She dug her fork in and took a bite. She had to stop herself from moaning. Fuck, he was a good cook. Dean sucked at cooking, even something as simple as scrambled eggs. They were either too runny, he scrambled and fried them to death, or he did use any type of butter or oil and most of them ended up sticking to the pan. The simple comparison made her chuckle to herself.

Beth turned and grabbed the glass of orange juice. “No coffee?”

“I’m trying to get you to relax. You don’t need any caffeine.”

She took a sip of the juice and nearly spit it out. “This is not orange juice.”

“Well it’s technically a screwdriver.”

“Caffeine isn’t okay, but vodka is?”

“Alcohol is a depressant, so it works in my favor.”

“Sure.”

Rio sat on the edge of Beth’s bed. “So, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I can go to the police. Dean is still my husband, we don’t have a set custody agreement.”

“If 24 hours goes by and you haven’t heard from him or the kids, you can go to the police.”

“How do you know this?”

Rio shrugged. “I know a lot of shit about Michigan law. It’s kind of my job.”

“So I call the cops and then what?”

“Kick his ass out,” Rio replied. “File for divorce and move on.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why not?”

”How am I going to fight this? I can’t afford a lawyer, all of my money is gone.”

”Don’t worry about that part, I can handle that.”

“And Dean knows too much. He knows we slept together.”

“Okay...? Infidelity doesn’t make you an unfit parent.”

“Sleeping with you, a man in serious legal trouble, won’t bode well for me in family court.”

“The feds can’t prove anything, everything is circumstantial at best. Besides, unless he has proof of us sleeping together, just deny it.”

“He knows I wash your money using the dealership,” Beth added.

“The dealership that he owns? The one that’s in his name?” Rio countered. “Nah, he can’t use that against you without implicating himself. Besides, on paper, he’s the guilty one, with all his shady business dealings and shitty money managing skills.”

“My signature is on all the orders and deliveries.”

“So are his.”

“No they aren’t.”

“They could be. I can easily get a stamp with his signature on it and we can re-do all of the paperwork to add his signature. If you go down, so does he. And an egomaniac like that dumbass husband of yours will not want to go down.”

Beth stared at Rio incredulously. “You’d seriously do that to help me?”

“I’m not gonna let car man take your kids away from you.” He was a parent himself. Rio loved his son more than life itself and he couldn’t imagine a world without Marcus in it. It would destroy him. “Besides, I don’t think you’ll let me kill him so...”

“No, you can’t kill him. Despite how awful he is, my kids love him unfortunately.”

“Fine. Then we go with plan B.”

Beth looked down at her plate, not really wanting to cry again. “Thank you.”

“We’re partners. I do have your back, you know.”

“You have a funny way of showing it sometimes.”

“Well I show it when it counts. Even if you don’t listen to me and you don’t let me help you.”

“I just never thought it’d come to this. I never expected Dean to use our kids as pawns. I never thought he’d be so vindictive towards me.” Beth scoffed. “I also never expected him to cheat and bankrupt us, but he did that, so why am I so shocked?”

“He’s an idiot. And he’s not gonna win this, ya hear?”

Beth wanted to argue with him, ask him how he could be so sure, but she decided not to. She sat the plate and glass down on her bedside table and yawned. “I think I’m gonna try to go to bed.”

“Okay.”

Before she could stop herself from saying the words, she asked in a soft voice, “Can you stay? Please? I can’t...it’s too quiet here.”

Rio wordlessly obliged, kicking off his shoes and pulling off his socks. He paused at one of the buttons on his shirt, contemplating on getting undressed, before saying, fuck it and taking off his clothes. He wasn’t going to get into a bed, fully clothed. He wasn’t a psychopath.

He slipped into the bed and instinctively curled an arm around Beth, pulling her in closer to him. Beth put her arm atop his, as if they could get any closer than they already were. The crown of her head was under his chin and he could smell her shampoo. And her skin was soft, so soft, it should’ve been criminal. Her feet were freezing cold though, and he had half a mind to crack a joke, but decided not to. Now probably wasn’t the time. Again, this was a level of intimacy he never thought he’d reach with the suburban blonde, and he didn’t really know what to do.

Neither of them spoke and Rio could feel Beth’s breathing stabilize, her pulse slowing down. Good, she was falling asleep.

After a while, Rio felt himself dozing as well when Beth’s soft voice broke through. “Thank you...for being here.”

Rio gently stroked the skin of her arm with the pad of his thumb. “Get some sleep, Elizabeth. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Beth would never admit it, to Rio or anyone else, but ironically enough, being pressed against him in his ridiculously tight bear grip was probably the first time in months that she felt like she could breathe. And it was the most peaceful sleep she’d gotten in a long time.


End file.
